Pain and Healing
by DuchessLomia
Summary: Sam has leaped into Amber, a young girl whose father abuses her. She hides within a fantasy world, and Sam and Al must bring her back to reality.
1. Default Chapter

Sam felt the familiar jolt, and was propelled backwards, until suddenly he felt a hand slap him. His whole face burned. "You want me dead huh?" A menacing man was standing before him, and just the look in his eyes terrified Sam. "Oh Boy" he said right before he got slapped again.

Amber woke up groggy and dizzy. She wasn't at home! She looked around the white room. There was no furniture except the strange box she sat on. There was also a mirror in the far corner. Amber walked over to the mirror and just as she fainted a man wearing a disco suit entered the room.

Sam managed to run into a room, he had no idea what room but as long as he got away from the man any room would suffice. He looked up and gasped. The entire four walls were covered in photos, stickers, murals. It was a living scrapbook, and Sam was astonished. He turned to a sticker-laden mirror and saw a young girl looking at him. She couldn't have been more than seventeen, with short brown hair and green eyes. Obviously from the way the room appeared this girl lived in a fantasy world.

Al stepped in to the leaping-room and grabbed the girl before she hit the floor. She had noticed the mirror. It was only a technical illusion, Sam's body, and wherever Sam was he would look like the girl, but neither of them would literally be in another's body. He switched his data receiver on to Ziggy and said, "She fainted, can you remove the blocking sensors so she can see herself?" "It is against protocol, if I do that Sam will appear as he is and the whole cover may be blown. Our primary mission is to bring him home safe, not for you to check out female leapees." Al rolled his eyes. "Ziggy, I'm trying to calm her down, please." He watched as the sensors were turned off and gasped. The girl, who had been screaming about aliens and police, settled down when she saw herself in the mirror. "What in hell is going on?" She yelled. Al noticed that her arms and wrists were covered in slash marks. He came over to examine her and she backed against the wall. Al calmly told her as he had been telling her for the past half-hour. "You are in no danger; I only want to help you. Please calm down; my eardrums are going to bleed." The girl screamed again, this time just for spite. "As soon as Sam does whatever is necessary in this leap you can go home." Suddenly the girl began to laugh. "Home, what makes you think I want to go home?" She walked over to the white box. "My name is Amber Lobstune." She confided, although Al already knew this. He saw Ziggy turn the sensors back on and he walked up to the girl. It was strange but he liked this hysterical girl, of course he liked all girls, so it wasn't that strange, but he knew she had problems and he wanted to help her out. He patted Amber on the back and went to check on Sam.

Sam was examining the pictures in the room when Al stepped in. "Holy crap, look at this place." He laughed at Sam, who looked like the girl he had just left. "Very funny, you know I'm a guy. Why did Ziggy turn the sensors off?" Al looked at the Sam dead-face and replied, "It's hard to bonk a chick when she looks like a man." Sam shook his head in frustration and sat on the bed. Al was always like this, he couldn't be serious if he was with the President. "Listen, you are Amber Lobstune, your seventeen and a junior in High School. Today is October 12, 1996, and on October 17, 1996 Amber's father, an alcoholic, beats her to death." Sam sighed. The one thing he hated more than anything was abuse. People could be so cold and cruel. "I'm supposed to keep her alive but still here, or do I take her away somewhere?" Al laughed. "The way that girl is, she's already been taken far, far, far away." Al said this as he pointed at pictures of a mermaid, a bleeding skull, and a waterfall. "Oh but it's funny, her cat is named Sam too." Sam looked at the black fuzz on the bed, he petted it and it hissed. "Al, what's wrong with her?" Sam asked. Al lit up a cigar and looked at Sam. "Her father beats her, her mother's gone and she has no friends. It's obvious she has retreated into a fantasy world within her mind. It will take years of therapy to straighten her out."

Amber sighed as she wondered in a circle in the white room. She hated being here, but she didn't want to go home. She didn't really know what she wanted. She began to daydream, adding on to her latest creation. Al stepped in and she smiled. He was handsome in a rugged sort of way. "What would you like to eat?" He asked. "What do you serve here?" She asked. "Well, steak and potatoes, or green eggs and ham?" She giggled. Al walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from pacing. "Care to talk?" He asked. He led her to the box and they sat down. "What were all those marks I saw when the sensors were removed?" Al dove right in. Amber rubbed her arms quietly. "The physical pain takes away the emotional pain." She explained. Al sighed. She was very lost and lonely. He reached out to give her a hug and she jumped up. "Don't ever touch me you alien!" He tried to reconcile but Amber went to a far corner and hid. Al left to check on Sam.


	2. Number two

Sam was reeling from the aftershock. He slapped the drunken man back and felt his whole body spin. He screamed as he punched the man's face. "Sam, what the hell are you doing?" Al had just stepped into a war zone. The two people were glaring at each other. Sam shook his finger in the man's face, "Sober up old guy, and learn to treat women better." The man spit in Sam's face and laughed, "What the fuck gives you the right to tell me me to do what..what to do.."

The man passed out at Sam's feet. "Please tell me what's going on." Al said. "He came home drunk, I was on the computer here and he started yelling obscenities at me, well, at Amber. I couldn't stand it, so, well, we fought." Al looked sternly at Sam. "You mean Amber fought him. Believe me, Amber is not the kind of person to fight anyone. Sam, you really know how to screw things up." Sam went to the kitchen and cleaned his face, then turned to look at Al.

"What if I take her away. I mean as Amber I go to a home or some shelter for a little while. She's seventeen and in a few months's she'll be legally able to leave him." Al looked at Ziggy for a moment. "Well yeah, good idea. Ziggy says there is a 75 chance if you leave tonight Amber will be able to get help, she could get a job and live a fairly normal life. However, Sam, if Amber does leave tonight, she won't finish High School." Sam looked at the calendar. It was October 14th. "If she stays she won't finish High School either, and she won't finish her life."

Al looked at Sam, and Sam walked over to the purse on the computer desk. "She has $23 and this…Is this a credit card?" He held up a red card with a flag on it. Al stared at it for a few moments. "Oh hey buddy; these are the new food stamp cards. Instead of giving you a set number of stamps, they give you an amount of money each month on them, and yeah, you use them like a credit card." Sam pocketed the money and stepped right on the passed out man's back. "Ohhh" Al winched. Sam was in the bedroom packing clothes and other items into a duffel bag. Al told him, "I'm going to explain things to Amber now. You be careful."

Amber took the news solemnly. Al had explained that she was going to a troubled teenager's home for a few months to straighten her life out. "Listen to me, I want you to try and complete High School, or at least get your GED. And please, don't ever resort to the streets for money." He was trying to help the girl understand her situation, and Amber appeared to comprehend. She smiled at Al. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. You and this guy Sam are really nice."

Al hugged the girl, but she remained stiff. He looked at her. "Don't ever be afraid to talk to people, sometimes a friend can be a good thing." She looked down and then at Al. "If this is 1999, and I live in 1996, are you and Sam still working here?" Al thought. "Yes, the Quantum Leap Project was just beginning around 1995. He didn't leap until 1999." Al shook all thoughts of trying to rescue Sam from his mind.

"We can't just barge into there and say we are from three years from now. If Sam doesn't leap in 1999, then Sam won't be in 1996. Holy cow I'm confused." Amber giggled and Al patted her. "This has been a nice vacation. I'm going to try and fix up my life. Perhaps I'll talk to a therapist." Al smiled. "A nice little dog may help too." Suddenly Amber coughed and her eyes began to fade. Al knew Sam had just leaped. He looked at the body before him. "What the fucking hell! Goddamn!" The person began to shout. Al stood up and sighed. "Here we go again."

Two days later a young, strange female contacted Al Calavichie. He answered the phone. "Hi, this is Amber Lobstune. I don't know if you remember me but I do remember you and Sam." Al laughed. "How are you?" Amber had gone on to get her GED and was now working on her bachelor's degree in psychology. She thanked him liberally and Al asked if she wanted to have dinner. She had to decline that night because her two best friends and her new boyfriend were going to a concert. Indeed, Sam and Al had changed this young girl's life around. Al put the phone down and wiped a tear from his eye.


End file.
